This application claims the priority of German Patent Application, Serial No. 299 14 191.8, filed Aug. 13, 1999, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates, in general, to a hand-held control device for adjustment of a piece of furniture.
Hand-held control devices are used for controlling drives for pieces of furniture with at least one drive motor, and a power supply directly fed from the power outlet or via a transformer or via a battery/accumulator. The drives may be equipped with one or more d.c. motors and/or a.c. motors which may be operated by various types of hand-held control devices via a control unit, e.g. relay and/or semiconductor devices etc., to turn or move the piece of furniture in different directions.
A hand-held control device represents a furniture drive component which remains visible after installation and thus permanently affects the outer look. Typically, hand-held control devices are attached to the drive by a cable and secured in place in various fashions. Examples of hand-held control devices are described, for example, in German utility models G 8804417, G 9318083 and G 29507947. In general, hand-held control devices are intended to implement many functions. Thus, many different designs have been proposed which vary not only in function but also in shape, color, imprint, ease of operation, noise level etc. As a result of using many different components, stock keeping is complicated and manufacturing costs are high, rendering conventional hand-held control devices rather cost-intensive. Oftentimes, the end consumer desires after purchase at some later time to replace the delivered hand-held control device. This becomes difficult because it is nearly impossible to identify the correct type and to find a matching and correctly operating alternative, when taking into account the many variations and connection types of existing hand-held control devices. In addition, it is uncommon to replace a wired hand-held control device by, e.g., a hand-held control device that is based on an infrared operation and has an identical keypad and/or operating elements.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an improved hand-held control device, obviating the afore-stated drawbacks.
In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved hand-held control device which is easy to produce and offers the user a wide variety of applications, while yet being reliable in operation.
These objects, and others which will become apparent hereinafter, are attained in accordance with the present invention by providing a housing having a lower housing part and an upper housing part; a circuit board received in the housing and having switch elements; a battery pack received in the housing for providing emergency power supply for operation of drive functions and/or power supply for operating the hand-held control device; and a cable or an infrared transmitter for operatively connecting the hand-held control device with the drive being controlled, wherein the circuit board and/or the upper housing part is securable to the lower housing part in at least two positions of installation.
According to another feature of the present invention, the circuit board may include a first electromechanical connector for connection to a complementary second electromechanical connector disposed in the lower housing part. Suitably, the second electromechanical connector is so configured in shape and electric circuiting as to allow placement and detachable clipped securement of the upper housing part. In particular, the circuit board and/or the upper housing part can be latched to the lower housing part in two positions that differ by an angle of 180xc2x0 so as to maintain control functions designated on a keypad on the upper housing part.
The hand-held control device can be assembled with a minimum number of standardized components that can easily be produced so that a customized production with constantly different tools is avoided. The single components are assembled to form separate modules which can be put together according to a customer""s order and then clipped together for shipment, or shipped directly. The customer received the hand-held control device as kit that allows the customer to assemble the hand-held control device to suit the demands at hand. The hand-held control device can realize a number of functions in wired mode as well as in wireless mode by using the same mechanical components, whereby the control panel or keypad will normally not change. The upper housing part may have different designs and, to some extent, different control configurations, while the lower housing part and the circuit board remain the same.
The upper and lower housing parts can be combined mechanically as well as electrically, whereby the upper housing part can be clipped to the lower housing part in addition in a 180xc2x0 rotated disposition.
According to another feature of the present invention, a cover sheet may be glued to the upper housing part for sealing purposes. It is also possible to provide the upper housing part and the lower housing part with a sealing lip, which may be made by a two-component injection molding process for realizing a high degree of sealing action (so called IP-protection type or ingress protection). The surface film, applied on the upper housing part at suitable locations, in conjunction with the two-component overlapping configuration between confronting ends of the upper and lower housing parts, realizes a particularly high degree of tightness (IP-type) of the hand-held control device.
According to another feature of the present invention, the upper housing part is provided with switching zones having keys integrated with the upper housing part. The keys may have a joint-forming notch to transmit an actuation pressure upon the switch elements.
The lower housing part may be provided with or without cable and has a compartment with two receptacles for accommodating two batteries/accumulators, respectively, for emergency operation in the event of, for example, a power failure, whereby a particularly small and powerful self-resetting electric fuse may be incorporated for the batteries. Thus, during a power failure, the drive for the piece of furniture may still be adjusted by the hand-held control device by tapping the batteries. When configuring the hand-held control device for wireless operation, only one battery is fitted in one of the receptacles for operating the transmitter unit which is fitted in the other one of the receptacles that is disposed adjacent an opening intended for entry of the cable when desiring to convert the hand-held control device for wired mode. When operating the hand-held control device in wireless mode, the opening is sealed by a plug that is transparent to infrared light, and the infrared transmitter is placed directly behind this plug. The use of a single battery in wireless mode is sufficient to operate the piece of furniture in the event of a power failure.